Page 16 - Fujifilm Exposure_44 Damned United_ok

IN PRODUCTION
LONGLIVETHEKING
ONLOCATIONWITH LOOKINGFORERIC,
KENLOACH’SLATESTFILM
n Looking For Eric, the tale of a IManchester postman in the mid- dle of a nervous breakdown who
is saved by a guardian angel in the
form of Manchester United legend Eric Cantona, everything appears to be total bedlam.
A crowd of perhaps 50 postmen are all wearing identical Eric Cantona masks. They are storming a gaudy 50s semi deep in the Manchester suburbs. Scantily-clad women run screaming from the front door, and a man in his Y-Fronts is getting very angry. This may be as close as Ken Loach has ever come to a Carry On movie. Either way, it is very funny.
Beneath their polemic power, the humour in Loach’s films is often overlooked, yet it has always been a central part of his method.
Looking For Eric puts the comedy in the forefront, some of the laughs coming from the banter between the group of postmen who support their workmate Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) as his life falls apart, some of it from Eric’s imaginary conversations with his mentor, played by Cantona him- self in wonderfully regal form.
It was Cantona himself, a long- time fan of Loach, who first sug- gested the collaboration.
“A very nice French producer Pascal Cacheteaux got in touch with Rebecca [O’Brien, Loach’s producer] and suggested that he and Eric and we meet,” says Loach. “Obviously we knew Eric Cantona, knew his public persona very well, and knew him as a fantastic foot- baller. They knew that Paul
Photo main: The Cantona postmen; above: Ken Loach on set directing
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